West Point musicians to join soprano Chase at free Trumbull concert

By Phyllis A.S. Boros, Staff writer

Published 2:02 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

For a performer, there's nothing quite like taking the stage in front of a home-town audience.

Trumbull soprano Constance Chase will do just that on Friday. And on this special occasion, she will be performing with a few good friends and colleagues -- all members of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point.

Chase will join seven musicians from the West Point Band, as it is commonly known, for a free 7:30 p.m. chamber concert at the Nichols United Methodist Church in Trumbull. On the program are works for flutes, with mixed instruments and voice.

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As members of the USMA's musical family, Chase says that she and her colleagues "spend a great deal of time traveling" throughout the country for concerts, "but we rarely have an opportunity to perform for family, friends and our community."

Friday's concert, she says, will be "fun, because it's a chance for those I most care about" to experience the professional side of her life. It will be her equivalent of "a bring-your-child-to-work-day" event, she adds, laughing.

Chase explains that the decision to bring the West Point Flutes, as they are called, to Trumbull was an easy one. She and Cunningham have performed together several times over the years. So when Cunningham mentioned that she and the other flutists wanted the opportunity to "run-through" their concert program in public prior to the flute convention, Chase suggested the Trumbull church, where she is a member.

And church officials readily agreed.

"We think it's wonderful to give the community an opportunity to hear these great musicians in concert," says the Rev. Joseph Piccirillo, pastor of the Nichols church. Especially during times of war, "it's important to keep members of the military front and center" in one's thoughts, he adds.

Friday's program highlights will include Roussel's "Deux poemes de Ronsard," showcasing Cunningham and Chase.

Chase also will perform the aria, "Zeffiretti lusinghieri" (Gently caressing zephyrs) from Mozart's opera "Idomeneo," accompanied by Chi on piano.

Lou Harrison's First Concerto for Flute and Percussion will be performed by Powers and percussionist Staff Sgts. Craig Bitterman and Nathan Eby. In each movement the percussionists will play a different ostinato pattern (a constantly recurring melodic fragment), while the flute performs a virtuosic melody.

Members of the West Point Band, which was founded in 1817, are professional musicians who have been recruited for service in the U.S. Army as full-time performers through competitive national auditions. The band consists of a marching unit, concert band, jazz group and chamber ensembles. By design, all public concerts are free of charge.

She is co-author, along with Shirlee Emmons, of "Prescriptions for Choral Excellence" (Oxford University Press, 2006), which is described as a book for choral directors and singers that applies new principles of voice science and performance psychology to the choral setting.

All three flutists have multifaceted musical

careers.

Cunningham, a member of the West Point Band since 1980, is principal flutist and the concert band's Non-Commissioned Officer-in-charge. She has a master's degree in flute performance from Arizona State University, and a bachelor's degree in flute performance from the University of Wisconsin. A free-lance musician and private flute instructor, Cunningham has served on the faculties at Arizona State, Nyack College and the State University of New York at New Paltz.